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Toronto FC coach Aron Winter sets lofty goals for long-suffering club

TFC coach Aron Winter has three goals for his club this season: advancing to the next round of the CONCACAF Champions League, winning a fourth straight Canadian title and seeing the Reds into the MLS playoffs for the first time.

TFC head coach Aron Winter has completely revamped his team's roster, raising hopes for a more successful season in 2012. "I want to take TFC to the level of the best in North America," Winter says.
(RICK EGLINTON / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Daniel GirardSports Reporter

Tues., March 6, 2012

Aron Winter is eyeing his own version of the treble for 2012.

The Toronto FC head coach and technical director has three significant goals for his club this season — advancing into the next round of the CONCACAF Champions League, winning a fourth straight Canadian championship and seeing the Reds into the Major League Soccer playoffs for the first time.

“Those are the targets,” Winter said in an interview on the eve of the 2012 season, which kicks off Wednesday with the first leg of a Champions League quarter-final against David Beckham and the defending MLS Cup titlist Los Angeles Galaxy before a sellout crowd at the Rogers Centre. “And, with the pieces we have brought in, I think we can do it very well.”

It speaks to the climate of tumult that has pervaded TFC almost continuously since the inaugural season of 2007 that Winter, starting his second year here, will be the club leader in games coached by month’s end.

The 45-year-old former Dutch international could not be more unlike his three main predecessors. Winter is accessible where Mo Johnston was aloof; low-key where John Carver was bombastic; warmer than prickly Preki Radosavljevic.

But it’s more than just Winter’s differing style that has instilled a sense of optimism like never before as TFC embarks on its sixth season. It’s a belief that under his direction the club may finally be growing up, poised to shed its image as box-office winners who lose on the field.

Winter has stuck with his plan to rebuild the franchise even though it meant completely overhauling the roster, including trading Dwayne De Rosario, the team’s captain and all-time leading scorer who went on to become the first Canadian to win MLS MVP honours. In 2011, TFC won just six of 34 MLS matches, equalling the low-water mark in the club’s first five seasons.

But a solid last third of the season, which saw the Reds go 3-2-6 in their final 11 MLS games and advance to the Champions League knockout stage for the first time, was a vote of confidence for Winter’s plan. He’s kept a core group from that late-season roster and addressed glaring holes, particularly in the back, in the off-season, raising expectations for 2012.

“He knows the direction he wants to go and he knows that takes time,” said assistant coach Bob de Klerk, who, like Winter, played in the top Dutch league and coached at Ajax of Amsterdam before signing with Toronto. “A lot of people would panic or start yelling or screaming, but he stays calm, even when the results are not good or maybe less than people are expecting.”

That calmness under fire was honed over 17 seasons on the game’s biggest stages. Winter began his career with Ajax at 19 and finished it there in 2003. In between, the defensive midfielder played in Italy’s Serie A for Lazio, where he was subjected to racism by fringe supporters as the club’s first black player, and moved on to Inter Milan before returning to Holland.

Winter won a UEFA Cup with Inter in 1998, a year after being runner-up. He also played 84 times for Holland, including three World Cups.

In a celebration of his career, 400 guests, including Johan Cruyff, Ronaldo and some of the game’s other greats, gathered in 2003 in Amsterdam’s renowned 19th century classical music hall for Winterball, a charity tribute.

“Every day I come to practice, I look up to him because he’s done it all,” said 21-year-old defender Ashtone Morgan, one of just 13 players on the roster who was with the team at the start of last season. “He’s a role model on and off the field, always giving little tips on how to be a good pro.”

Winter, a native of Suriname, the former Dutch colony in South America, said “coming to North America was not in my plan,” when TFC brass reached out in late 2010 at the urging of Jurgen Klinsmann, the former German star who was hired to help the club find a new coach — and a new identity.

But when he visited Toronto, Winter liked the city, club management, plans for the TFC Academy and new training facilities, “the beautiful stadium and great fans,” and the challenge he faced. He signed for three years.

“Last season was a difficult year,” Winter said, pointing to everything from pre-season travels to Turkey, Florida and South Carolina that were planned before his arrival, to a roster that “didn’t have a lot of quality.”

Making matters worse was the fact Winter’s wife, Yvonne, and their three children — aged 12, 16 and 18 — didn’t move to Toronto until July. But with the family now settled downtown, the two youngest in school and the oldest preparing to start a college program, domestic life is nicely in order.

And, professionally, Winter believes TFC is also coming together.

“This is my home and I’m going to stay for much longer,” he said. “I’m here to succeed. I want to take TFC to the level of the best in North America.

“Even though I signed for three years, to realize all my targets will take longer.”

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